Power, urea units get bulk of additional gas

An Empowered-Group of Ministers (E-GoM) on Tuesday allocated bulk of the additional natural gas from Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) Krishna-Godavari (KG) fields to power and urea plants.

Headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the E-GoM fixed users for about 50 million standard cubic metres a day (mscmd) of gas that RIL will produce from KG-D6 fields. It also allowed the Mukesh Ambani-headed company to use gas for its petrochemical plants and refineries.

While the users of initial production of 40 mscmd were decided, the meeting was held to decide about additional gas production. According to Oil Secretary R. S. Pandey, state-run NTPC and other power producers would get over 34 mscmd of more gas. This together with 18 mscmd already allocated from initial volumes would bridge the fuel deficit at existing plants and those to be commissioned this year.

Similarly, refineries, including those of RIL, would get 5.384 mscmd of gas on firm basis and an additional 6 mscmd when output from KG D-6 stabilises at 90 mscmd, he said. The E-GoM had allocated 20 mscmd of gas on firm basis and the balance 30 mscmd on temporary or fallback basis till such time that RIL was confident of producing 90 mscmd of gas on a sustained basis, Mr. Pandey added.